


Broken Souls

by BooksandRoses268



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Slavery, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-05-03 18:39:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5302535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BooksandRoses268/pseuds/BooksandRoses268
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumpelstiltskin buys a young slave girl who has suffered through a lot. Can he he her wounds as she heals his?<br/>AKA<br/>The one where the Dark One has to earn Belle's trust.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Souls

Rumpelstiltskin is not given to visiting slave markets.

There are desperate people there, yes, but they rarely have anything to bargain with. There are few deals to be made, and the gaunt faces and broken gazes remind him of things he would rather not remember.

So it is only by chance that he is present there when the girl arrives.

He had been following a rumor of a powerful magic artifact, and that had proven false, so he had just been about to leave when he saw her.

She is beautiful, even covered in dirty and grime and dressed in rags as she is, but that is not the first thing he notices. She is surrounded by people whose gazes are lowered and eyes downcast, but she defiantly meets the eye of anyone who glances her way, though fear is evident in her cerulean gaze.

He doesn't blame her. The bidding for her is yet to start, but she is being eyed by a number of men. Their lust-filled gazes sicken him, as he observes her drawing her tattered dress closer around her slender frame.

She glances his way then, and catches him looking at her. To his surprise, there is curiosity as she stares at him, then she is dragged forcefully away from someone, and almost thoughtlessly, he follows.

A large man drags her to a makeshift stage, and he suppresses the urge to turn him into a snail and crush him beneath his boot for touching the girl so carelessly. She seems to draw out a protective instinct in him

The slave-trader is asking for a price, and an arrogant young man, muscled and handsome, saunters onto the stage and offers the highest bid before grabbing the girl's arm. She recoils from him, and he slaps her across the face.

Rumpelstiltskin, as yet unnoticed in his simple brown cloak and hood, steps forward in the blink of an eye, and with a wave of his hand the man is forced to step back.

All their attention now focused on him, Rumpelstiltskin throws back his hood.

Everyone there, slaves, traders and buyers alike, step back and shuffle away. All except the girl, who stares at him levelly with clear blue eyes, and the man who has slapped her, who draws out his sword.

"What do you want here, demon?"

Foolish boy. Rumpelstiltskin gives a giggle.

"Nothing to do with you, dearie. The girl. I want her."

He steps in front of her.

"She's mine."

Rumpelstiltskin conjures up a bag of gold and tosses it to him.

"Here is your price. Now _get out of my way!_ "

He is not foolish enough to disobey, which, in Rumpelstiltskin's opinion, is a pity, because right then he would have obliterated him off the face of the earth, had he not stepped away.

He places him hand on the girl's waist, and they disappear in a cloud of purple smoke.


End file.
